Save You
by November Falls
Summary: After leaving Forks fifty years ago, the Cullens are back. What they find not even Alice could have predicted. Cassidy Swan is about to become either the breaking point for the family or the one thing that will complete them in ways they didn't know.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue: Home is Where the Heart Is

_Cassidy's POV_

I had always wanted to teach, it was just one of those callings that comes up and grabs a person. It grabbed ahold of me when I was twelve and wouldn't let go. The plan from then on had always been to go to Washington State and then to get the hell across country and as far from Forks, Washington as I could. I never wanted to be trapped in the small town I grew up in. I never wanted to stay there forever; I wanted something big and shiny. Some east coast city where no one knew my name sounded like the right thing for me. It had been my goal and I'd achieved it for almost two years, teaching in a small private school in Georgia. I was happy there. I was beginning to have a life there. I couldn't think of one thing that would have made me move back to Forks after my escape. Visits were a given, I had my family back there, family that I loved more then anyone could possibly understand. Teaching in my small private school was my life and I was happy, that was all that had mattered to my parents.

And then the unthinkable happened, something no child ever thinks about happening; even if their parents were in their nineties. It was late at night and the phone had rang, what felt like, a millions times before I ever found it. It was my father, in a panic. My father never panicked about anything, not even when my baby brother had been rushed to the hospital when he was four because he'd passed out on the park. I don't want to, but I can remember every word from his mouth that night. It's almost like a nightmare being replayed over and over.

"_Cas, you need to come home, as soon as you can." His voice was high pitched and desperate. In my half awake state, I could even hear the pain under it. _

"_What are you talking about, daddy?" My own voice was mugged down with sleep as I looked over at the clock and saw that it was one in the morning. I had to be up four and half hours, I would never get back to sleep now._

"_You have to come home baby…it's…it's your mother. Something's happened." That served to wake me up from my stupor. I rushed to sit up and stared into the darkness around me while my father explained that there had been an accident on one of those stupid slick roads and she'd ran off into a ditch._

One simple nights and my whole world changed. It brought me back home to say good bye to a lifeless body. Once home, I couldn't bring myself to leave my father and brother. I tried, I packed everything I had brought with me to go back to Georgia, but in the end it hadn't happened. Two months later, I walked myself into the office of Forks High School to try and see if there was any way I could get hired. In a small town, if you get a job at the school normally, you keep it for a while. I got lucky I guess, Mr. Howards just couldn't say no and it helped that Mrs. Peabody, the same exact woman that had once yelled at me about run on sentences, was retiring. When the new school year started, I would be teaching sophomore, junior, and senior Advance English in the school that I had once dreamed of never seeing again.

I still can't bring myself to regret my decision. It was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but my family needed me and I knew there wasn't any way I could have gone thousands of miles away again and been happy. I guess the saying is true, home is where the heart is.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One: Some Things Will Always Change

_Edward's POV_

It was raining, but no one in the parking lot of Forks High School took that as a bad sign for the start of the year, just a normal everyday thing. In fact, most of the students that were getting out of their cars, or chatting with friends that hadn't they seen since the beginning of summer, didn't even noticing the rain. There was one thing, well actually seven people to be exact, which held most everyone's attention. It was rare that Forks ever saw anyone new, but the gossip around town for three weeks had been about a family that had just moved into a house a little ways out of town. The father was some hot shot at the hospital, while the mother was a stay at home mom of the adopted children. Everyone that stood in the parking lot that morning were itching to get a look at the new comers, wanting something to talk about and entertain them, on what was bound to be a very boring first day.

That family--happened to be my family. Even if I hadn't been able to read their minds and known that they were all thinking about my siblings, daughter, wife and me, I would have been able to feel their stares. The thoughts behind those stares were what had a slight smirk on my face. It was always the same things, no matter how many times we stepped onto a new campus: wonder and amazement from the simple minded ones, fear and worry from the slightly smarter ones. The girls all wondering if my brothers and I were attached to someone; while the boys made my control walk a thin line in regards not only to my wife but my sisters and daughter. Protectiveness was just something that ran deep and could not be helped. Emmett and Jasper were thinking the same things, wondering which one would be the first stupid one to even look at Bella, Alice, Renesmee or Rosalie wrong. Outside of those feelings and amusement, I couldn't help but feel at home. In the half century we'd been away from Forks, I couldn't think of one place we'd lived that had felt like this. It was like being able to breath with ease again. Not only that, but I could tell that Bella was happier then she'd been in a while. As her eyes scanned the school, I could almost see her coming alive with the idea of being within the walls of the buildings again. What a novel idea.

As Bella wrapped her hand around mine and squeezed as hard as she could, we started toward the building that housed our first class. Jasper and Alice were sticking closer, but behind as they said their good byes. Jasper, pretending once again to be Rosalie's twin, was taking junior classes and that meant hours away from his mate. I could hear Alice's whines in her head at how unfair it was that she was the only one who had to spend time away from her mate. It made me smirk even more, anything that gave the little pixie as much torment as she gave me made me do that. Her whines stopped almost as quickly as they started the moment we all heard a roaring motorcycle pull into the lot. We'd heard it from miles away, but assumed it would move past the school. In less then a half a minute the thoughts of the people around us moved from my family to the figure on a black Honda Interceptor. A name sounded through their thoughts, one that had my feet stopping and a sinking feeling wash over my entire body.

Cassidy Swan.

In moments the motorcycle had parked in the back of the lot and the person stepped off. I never looked at her; I was too busy pulling my schedule out of my bag, and making sure I was wrong. Of course I knew I wasn't. I had the small white piece of paper memorized, as did Bella. Sure enough, beside the first class of the day, Advance English was the name C. Swan.

"Edward, move it. It's just a motorcycle; Jasper's is a lot better." Emmett's voice hissed behind me. With a shove he sent Bella and me forward, making it possible that neither Bella nor Renesmee got a look at the figure on the bike either. But Alice had and from the worried tone of her thoughts she'd caught on rather quickly to the possible problem we were all about to face. Dread washed farther over me when Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper split off to find their own classes. I didn't understand the worry though, it had been fifty years and it was possible that Swan was a common name. Even if not, it was possible that person it belonged to had never been told anything about the woman beside me that had worry in her eyes as she watched everything I did. When we'd left Charlie had promised that there would be no talk of us, so that we could come back one day.

I was so wrapped up in my concerns that I didn't feel Renesmee come up beside me and wouldn't have if she hadn't wrapped her arm around mine, purposely making sure her bare hand touched my forearm.

The image she sent me was of the entrance of the motorcycle, circled with the confusion she felt from my reaction. I couldn't help but smile down at the copper haired beauty that held her mother's human eyes.

"Just wondering how a teacher could afford it, that's all dear."

She gave me a look that clearly stated she didn't believe me, but let it go so that she could skip up to join a pouting Alice.

"She seems happy to be here." Bella's voice came from my other side. It was barely a whisper, as if she didn't want the humans around us to hear and she probably didn't for good reason.

"She is. It's her home more then ours. She was born here."

"I doubt we'll have an easy time when it comes time to leave again." Bella tended to understand our daughter's reluctance to leave a place better then I did. As nervous as it made me, everywhere, we went Nessie made more friends then was healthy. She hated leaving them, but here would be different. She already had friends here. Jacob's pack mates, those that were still living, that is; and those that weren't there were the families of them that had quickly pushed their way into her huge heart. However, with the thought of the figure on that motorcycle in the front of my mind, it seemed like my wife was going to be right about this. Lluckily we were here for a while…or maybe not so luckily.

It felt like days before we stepped into the classroom that we would spend that next hour in, listening to the person that could possibly be the undoing of my wife and child. It was a small class, only about fifteen of us. Alice and Nessie had already found four seats in a square at the back of the room and were waving at us. Bella slipped into the seat behind Alice, most likely so they could pass notes the whole hour and gossip like always. I took the seat behind Nessie and waited anxiously for our teacher, hoping I was right about their last name being common and not meaning what I assumed it did.

Everyone in the rows in front of us straightened up from their goofing off when the sound of heels come from outside the door. There was a laugh that sounded slightly like sleigh bells, but it cut off as soon as a tall dark haired woman walked through the door, sending more clicks of her heels through the room. Every male in the room sat straighter in their chairs, eyes falling to the woman's legs. None of them wondered how she wore the mid thigh length thing on that motorcycle, however none of them had the world's most beautiful woman so it was forgiven. My own eyes stayed on her face, studying it. Not one feature reminded me of Bella when she'd been human…until I got to the eyes. They weren't as dark as my daughter's, but their shape was the same. Her hair was wet, which would have explained why she'd been pulling it up in a pony tail when she walked through the door, but I could tell it was a dark brown, just not much else. Her skin wasn't pale at all, but not as dark as my son-in-law's. Aside from the short skirt that I still had no clue over how she wore her on mode of transportation, she wore a blouse that was dark blue that buttoned down the front and had a ruffled collar. It struck me for a moment that she really did look the part of an English teacher, minus the skirt. The only part of her that held any resemblance to Bella, was her eyes, and they weren't even a complete match like Nessie's were. I swallowed hard as Alice looked back at me, curiosity lacing the thoughts she sent toward me.

"Good Morning everyone, I hope you're well this morning."

The woman, who had yet to confirm that she was the C. Swan that was on everyone's schedule, greeted us. She smirked knowingly at the mumbles she received from everyone and went to the board after dropping her briefcase off beside her desk chair. She started writing on the white board in a loopy handwriting, Cassidy A. Swan. When she turned around the smirk was gone and in its place was a smile that almost seemed to light up her whole face…except her eyes. She walked around to the front of her desk and leaned back against it. I tried to pull out her thoughts, and almost thought she was like Bella and was going to be blocked from me, but at last I saw them. However, there wasn't anything there that could help me, just the name Ben and worries about how she was going to start the day off. Oh, and if she was going to be yelled at about her short skirt, that caught my attention since it seemed odd for a teacher to think about.

"As I'm sure most of you know, I'm Cassidy Swan, seeing as some of you use to know me as the babysitter you can probably block out the next few minutes, but there are some faces and names I don't recognize, so for them I'll tell you a little bit about myself." She crossed her arms under her breasts and of course lost the attention of about four of the guys in the first and second rows. Nessie and Alice's attention were fully on her, and Bella's was a mystery but at a glance I could see her eyes tuned in on the girl at the front of the room.

"I am Police Chief David Swan's daughter, a few of you have probably met him recently over at the cliffs. I'm slightly disappointed that I wasn't invited to such an interesting gathering." I tried focusing on her words, since her thoughts seemed to circle around the same topics, hoping the words gave me a little more insight. "I'm twenty five and for the last two years have been teaching at a private school in Atlanta, Georgia. I have a degree in Education and a minor in English. I refused to follow in my father's foot steps, much to my mother's pleasure. And as unlikely as it seems to most of you, it really wasn't all that long ago that I was sitting in one of those chairs and because of that I will try my hardest to make sure you stay more entertained with what you learn then what I happen to be wearing." I head Bella snicker at that and grinned a little myself.

She walked back around the desk and leaned down to pick up the brief case. I did have to say, if she was kin at all to Bella, which was becoming clearer by everything she said, she sure hadn't gotten that clumsy gene. Bella hadn't been able to wear heels until she'd been changed, but this woman walked in them without missing a beat. Which was probably a good thing, since the more Bella watched her the more it looked like she was about to explode out of her seat at the poor teacher. There were a few people that shuffled in their seats while our teacher, Ms. Swan, pulled out some papers and handed them to the first person at the top of the rows, gesturing that they pass them back.

"I'm being punished for all the trouble I gave Mr. Howards when I was a student here. Why , you ask. Simple, I was given this class to teach, a class about romantic fiction and its effect on modern works. I will say it once and you won't have to hear it again." She paused, that smirk playing over her lips again. "I have never been a lover of the romantic genre, in fact I have long believed it isn't a real genre at all. However, I was told what to teach and teach it I will. We're going to start with the ever loved play of Romeo and Juliet."

At that she walked to the back of the room, down the middle of the center two rows and luckily far away from Bella and myself, toward the book shelf there. Before she started speaking again, and I knew she was going to, her mind was wrapping itself around what exactly she wanted to say about the play that most everyone she knew loved…but oddly she hated. She'd been right about not being a lover of romantic literature. She started passing out books, copies of the play that had been badly treated or maybe just never been updated since the last time I had used them.

"My freshman year of college I had to study this play. My professor hated it, thought that it was clearly the worst play Shakespeare wrote. At first I disagreed with him. I mean really who could hate Romeo and Juliet? But he did and I remember the first thing he told me."

By now she was back at the front of the room and still the only thing I was getting from her was what she was going to say next, nothing past what was at the very forefront of her brain. I was becoming annoyed by it, I could have really cared less about what she thought of what she was teaching, but she seemed to feel it was important. I had to force myself to listen.

"He said that in the years he'd been teaching that he'd had students come into his class that would argue until they were blue in their faces about how wrong he was about one piece of literature or another. He would stand his ground and give his reasons for his thoughts. At the end of the eighteen weeks most of those students had seen the light, as he said. Now, I'm not here to tell you to hate the play you now have in front of you. But to start off, here is a major reason I do."

She walked back the board and her black marker and wrote a single question under her name in her loopy handwriting.

At what age can a person say they know what real love is?

She turned back around to see confused faces, one of which was my daughter who looked back at me with her confused pout. I nodded back to Ms. Swan and heard Alice laugh at her.

"I'm sure you've heard that saying, 'You're too young to be in love.' I know I heard it a few times when I was your age and at the time I thought the people telling me that were crazy. If that heart pounding crazy feeling I felt every time I was around my first boyfriend wasn't love, then what was?" She smiled again, and yet again it didn't reach her eyes.

"In the context of Romeo and Juliet, I want you to remember that the characters Shakespeare wrote weren't meant to be the adults that normally portray them. They were twelve and thirteen, mere children in our minds, but in that time, practically adults because of the life span." She laid her marker back down and pulled out her chair.

"We have about twenty more minutes, start reading the first act and get as far as you can. For homework I want you to write up an answer to the question on the board. I want an actual number and if you can't come up with one, don't write the paper. It must of course be at least three hundred words, but the more the better." The smirk played back over her lips as she sat down and waved her hand for us to start.

_Cassidy's POV_

Part of me wanted to run screaming from the parking lot the moment I pulled my motorcycle into it. I wanted to be here--I did. I wanted to be in Forks, minutes away from the middle school, so that if Ben needed me I could be there in no time. I was right across the street from the house I'd grown up in, that way I knew dad and Ben both had home cooked meals. So, while I wanted to run away again, I knew why I was doing this. I had to stay for my family, I couldn't leave them alone. I pulled into a spot and stared into the small line of trees in front of me. I could do this; it was no different then what I'd been doing for the last two years anyway. I had enjoyed high school, even if I hadn't wanted to stay around in the small town that housed it.

When I stepped off my motorcycle into a puddle of water I couldn't help the groan. Two years of endless sun had spoilt me. I was going to hate the weather man again, I could see it already. I forced myself to ignore the stares of my future students. Small town, stares were a given and seeing as I was the hometown girl that had left for seven years, it was also given that I would be on everyone's minds. I headed straight for the building that housed my classroom, beating myself up about not having put an umbrella somewhere on my person. By the time I reached the building my hair was dripping wet, probably ruining the back of my shirt. Yet another thing I ignored and just decided that pony tails were going to become my best friend.

"Look what the cat dragged in." A loud, booming voice came from behind me. I spun around to see the face of the very last person I ever expected to see in the halls of my old high school. Jason Newton, Forks once upon a time heart throb. He'd been the prom king to my queen when we'd been seniors and then ran down to California to UCLA. Like many of the people that had gone to school with me and not on the reservation, I hadn't spoken to him in years, almost a life time.

"I think it may have drowned me first and then dragged me in." I smirked at him as he wrapped his arms around in an awkward hug; everything was awkward with the guy that had been smitten with you for years. My smirk turned a smile when he laughed again and I noticed the wedding band on his left hand, one less thing to worry about.

"It's good to see you, Cas. You look…hell I'll be honest, you like sex on two damn fine legs." I couldn't help but gawk at him before he wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"I have a class to teach Newton, I'll see you around."

I fought a laugh, but I couldn't control it as I started for my room again. Some things in this town would never change. The laugh fell away quickly, they all did. I pulled my hair up, and started in on the day. I tried not to sound like I was lecturing and had to remind myself more then once that this wasn't my first class. I had been doing this for two years. I knew what I was teaching; I knew what I wanted out of this class and the others I had.

I had chosen Romeo and Juliet, not to turn the students off of the romantic genre, but to show them that what everyone said was great, wasn't always great. Plus, it was a given that most of them had probably already read it. It would be a breeze to start with.

I didn't allow myself to take in the faces of who was in the class until I was finally done talking and had them reading. It was as I sat down at my desk that I noticed them. In the back left corner, farthest from the door sat four children that couldn't be real. They were beyond beautiful, and I felt odd saying that since three of them were girls. Their skin was pale, paler then what should have been normal. When the small girl in front lifted her head, her face looked like it had been sculpted by one of the world's finest artist. I was staring, I knew it. I just couldn't tear myself away from them, studying every detail about the four of them. It wasn't until the bell rang that I thought to look down at my class list to see who they may have been.

Alice Cullen

Edward Cullen

Renesmee Cullen

Isabella McCarty

The names bounced off the paper because they weren't names I knew. I knew every family in this town, curse of being not only the current Police Chief's daughter but the granddaughter of the former one. They had to be four of the children that belonged to the new doctor at the hospital. I felt dazed, I couldn't figure out why, but something inside told me that I should know their names even if it was clear I had never met a Cullen or a McCarty in my life. I didn't pull myself out of my stupor until my first class of seniors had taken their seats. _I'm sure me staring off into space was an amazing welcome to the class look._

"Good morning, hope everyone made it through our wash out in one piece…" And off I went, another class, another type of writing. But those four children stayed in the back of my mind for most of the hour.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Two: Is She or Isn't She?

_Bella's POV_

The same question had been sounding through my head on a continuous loop for the last four hours. _How was this possible?_ Alice had said all morning that she hadn't seen the woman in any vision she'd had and of course I believed her. Why would she lie about something like that? This could mess up everything we'd planned for the next few years, if this Cassidy was in fact some kin to me. I couldn't think of any other alternative though. What were the chances that another family with the last name Swan had moved into Forks while we'd been away? Very, slim indeed. Even I knew that in the blind panic that was creeping up at the edges of my mind.

The only saving grace I could think of was the promise Charlie had given me, and the rest of my family, when we'd explained why we were leaving. He'd promised that for as long as he was alive he would never mention me, Edward, Renesmee or the rest of the Cullens again. He'd understood that we'd want to come back. I trusted him to keep the promise and knew that he had. Edward seemed slightly positive that this woman knew nothing about us, and the last thoughts he'd heard from her as we'd left class had been that she couldn't remember ever knowing a Cullen or a McCarty. She hadn't recognized my face either, another clue that if she was somehow kin to me, Charlie had kept to his promise.

I just couldn't figure out how it was possible for her to be kin to me. When we'd left, Charlie hadn't been interested in anyone, it had been clear he was still somewhat attached to my mother. Unless…it was possible, but I would have thought Jacob would have told us about it.

"Sue," I whispered across the table at lunch.

My family, except for Rosalie and Renesmee, were sitting around me. They had opted to take classes that would put them at lunch after us--simply because they were classes they had both wanted to take and couldn't get at any other time. Without them, it felt slightly wrong to discuss the problem at hand, but if I didn't get it out of my own head soon I was sure I was going to go insane.

"Need a little more information, Bells." Emmett rolled his eyes and I fought back a sneer.

"Sue Clearwater," I further. "She was basically living with dad when we left. I didn't think of it at the time, but sometimes the way they looked at each other, the basic sparks were there. She was young enough to still have children."

I looked at Edward as he started chuckling. I could feel the confusion write itself across my face as I watched him. I didn't see anything amusing about this. I had been banging around every idea I could think of for four hours, this seemed to be the best one and he was laughing.

"I'm sorry Bella," he laughed out finally, after someone, I assumed Emmett, kicked him. "It's just that it makes so much sense. There's a boy that she keeps thinking of. Ben. His name popped up a few times and there's a picture of him on her desk. He looks a bit like Seth, just with lighter hair and paler skin."

"I don't know." Alice's voice was small, with a crease in her forehead, as she peered at the table in front of us. Jasper's arm was wrapped around her tightly, she'd been trying to force a vision of the woman since we'd sat down, and it was clear he was worried. "We've seen both Leah and Seth since we left, why wouldn't they have mentioned it?"

"Maybe because they knew how upset thinking about Charlie made Bella?" Emmett suggested, earning a nod from myself along with Jasper and Edward.

"Either way, Alice didn't see anything about her. So there doesn't seem to be anything to worry about. She's here, she doesn't know anything about us or she would have put things together while we were in class." Edward's hand took mine as he spoke, trying to calm me in a way that Jasper's talent never could. "It's too early to worry about things; we'll talk to Carlisle tonight and see what he thinks. He could probably find out something at the hospital faster then us talking it out. If you really want to know that is."

I couldn't help but stare at him as I thought it out.

_Did I want to know? Of course, if this person was somehow part of my human family I wanted to know. The more important question was what would I do with that information once I had it?_

"She'll find out soon." Alice spoke up again, sounding cheerier this time. She looked up and smiled. "I couldn't see the exact answer, but we find out and apparently, you're happy with what you hear."

I smiled at her. I could take the answer if Alice seemed confident that I would like it. A part of me was already resigning itself to her being Charlie's granddaughter some how. That part was almost purring because that meant he'd been happy in the years that we'd been away; and happy was what I had wanted when we'd left. It had been the whole reason we left.

Feeling slightly relieved, I finally allowed myself to look around the lunch room. Forks High School had changed some in the time we'd been away. A few new buildings had been built, but the lunch room hadn't changed. In fact we now sat in the same place where I'd first seen Edward. It seemed fitting, like another natural habit that we'd all missed. My eyes scanned the front of the room, where the only change sat. In the years that we'd been away, a new policy had been put in place. Teachers had to take turns monitoring lunches and with the new relief I was feeling, I couldn't help but wonder if Cassidy Swan was watching this period.

There was a slight disappointment in the pit of my stomach when I didn't see her. But it didn't last long when I heard the same sleigh bell laugh from behind me. I turned my head, making it look like I was simply resting my head on the hand Edward had wrapped around my shoulder, to look. She stood a few booths away, talking to a group, of what I assumed to be, seniors. Shesaid she'd babysat some of the students in our class, so it made sense that she would know some in the room now.

As she talked and laughed with two boys and a girl that she seemed to know very well, I allowed myself to finally look at her. She was taller then me, but only by a few inches. Her hair wasn't the same shade of brown, but if my theory was right, it would make sense for it to be darker. Her smile was a punch in the gut; it held traces of Charlie's smile, only adding to my theory. I had to cut my staring short when she pushed away from the table and started toward the table we were at, probably heading for the door closest to us. My head snapped around much faster then a human's could have as she walked by, heels clicking louder then they had that morning.

"Hey, Miss Swan!" Emmett bellowed about the time she made it to the door.

I sent a glare his way while he got a goofy grin on his face. I watched her turn around and stare oddly at Emmett before she walked back to the table. Her curious expression stayed in place as she crossed her arms and looked at him.

"Yes, Mr. McCarty?" Emmett and I were playing brother and sister, something we'd found to be easier to explain then saying he, Edward, Alice, Renesmee, and myself were all Cullens.

'

"I had a question about that paper you asked us to write last period." I could see the amusement he was getting out of this, but what got my attention more was the ridged stance Jasper had taken on.

Alice caught onto it too, but didn't seem worried in the way she did when she thought he was being bothered by the smell of blood. He'd gotten much better with it since I'd been turned. It helped that Renesmee had a beating heart for him to be around all the time. This tension in his face wasn't from the temptation, but something else.

"It's rather simple, Mr. McCarty. I want a fifty word essay on one theory you have about why banning books in schools is wrong." I had missed the question Emmett has asked, but knew he hadn't really called her over to ask one.

He wanted to torment me, I knew it. I could see it on his face as his eyes flicked toward me. He had yet to notice Jasper, if he had, I was sure he'd have rushed the teacher away.

"What if I don't think it's wrong?" My eyes flicked back to Cassidy and I could see the annoyance written all over her face.

"Really, Mr. McCarty is…"

"Excuse me Miss Swan, but if you don't mind, I think I could explain this to my rather thick headed brother." Jasper's voice came out smoother then I had thought it would and earned him a curious stare from us all. "I haven't had your class yet, it's my next period, but I think I can gather the gist of what you're wanting."

"Thank you." My attention flew back to Cassidy in those two words. Her tone had changed drastically changed. The annoyance had dropped out of it, instead it was calm but Jasper hadn't sent out any calming vibes. She had a smile back on her face and for a moment I could have sworn that Jasper had mirrored it, but that was before she started waving her hands as if to dismiss something she hadn't said.

"Mr. McCarty, allow your brother to explain it or come by after school and I can discuss it then." Once again, her mood had changed, only this time it was rushed and she was stepping for the door before she'd ever finished.

Once she was out the door I turned my attention back to Emmett, sending him a glare that had him rolling. As much as I loved my brother, there were times when I wanted to murder him. His sense of humor was getting worse with every passing decade.

"I just wanted to ask her about my essay." His smirk told a different story and Edward had to tighten his arm around me to keep me from jumping across the table.

"She was going to try to murder him, too." Jasper's voice was distant and the look on his face told us he was thinking. "At least she felt like she was."

"She thought about it," Edward laughed. "She's amusing when she's not trying to figure out what she'll say next. Still, calling her over here didn't prove anything."

"I'm sticking to my essay excuse." With that, Emmett got up and patted me on the head, making me glare at him more. "If she is kin to you, Bells, I say we keep her. She could be fun."

I fought to roll my eyes and lost. Lunch was almost over and I didn't have time to try and kick his ass for it anyway. Plus, thanks to his little joke, I had more to think about, like how she had clearly became dazzled by a simple sentence from Jasper, when Emmett hadn't even registered in that way with her. I glanced at Alice and Jasper, who were bent toward each other whispering.

"You don't want to know," Edward whispered before pushing me gently out of the booth. Our next class was on the other side of the campus and we had to go or we'd miss it.

_Jasper's POV_

Like most vampires, I could remember very little about my human life, except for the last few months as a solider. But I'd always gathered that those memories stuck because most of the days before I was turned were very organized and the same. Nothing changed for me after that until I walked into that café and saw my amazing Alice. My eternal life had meaning and that meaning was her. I would follow her to hell and back, and I'd believed more then once that I was going to have to. The very thought of loosing her brought on a pain that I had never felt in the two hundred and thirteen years that I had been walking on earth. I believed there was nothing in the world that could compare to the way I felt about her…I had never had anything prove me differently.

Sitting around the lunch table with my siblings, I could feel their worry and anxiousness washing over me in waves. Alice's feelings were enhanced because she was trying to force herself to see something she knew she couldn't. As long as the woman, Cassidy, had not made the decision to be part of our lives as anything but a teacher there would be no future for her to see. I had pulled Alice close to me when I felt her frustration reach a breaking point. I hated it when she got herself wrapped up this tightly in something. I hated seeing Bella's vacant stare, knowing that even if I tried to calm her worries they would only come back once I was gone. In this situation what I could do to help would only be temporary and what they all needed was a reliable solution, which I couldn't give them.

I had yet to take my English class and see the now infamous Cassidy Swan. My interest was peaked of course, someone holding the name of one of my family members was rare added in with the worry that even playful Emmett was feeling and I knew this was big. I listened silently, focusing more on comforting Alice then what they were saying, as they discussed the idea of her being the secondary by product of a union of Charlie and Sue Clearwater, which, of course, would have been the woman's father. It was interesting to think of, and possible in more ways then I was sure they were thinking, but as Alice trembled underneath my hands at the force of her attempting something she knew wouldn't happen, I had to block them out.

"Please stop, darling, you're only upsetting yourself more," I whispered into her ear as my hand slid up and down her arm.

Even though I knew she had heard me, she ignored me. It killed me that she was upsetting herself like this. I understood, though, Bella was her best friend, her sister in more ways then most could understand, this was important, and not just to Bella but the whole family. I continued to whisper to her, hoping that along with the calming vibes I was sending her would help the process some. I didn't catch onto what Emmett had done until I heard a different voice.

"Yes, Mr. McCarty?" That voice had me looking up from Alice and into a pair of dark brown eyes that looked almost black.

This was Cassidy, the woman that was pushing my amazing Alice over the edge and causing my family to walk on egg shells. I shouldn't have thought of staring at her, but something in that voice, something I couldn't figure out, caught me and dragged my eyes to watch every movement she made. Without thinking I latched onto the emotions coming from her body, so many more then the ones her face was showing. There was the frustration that Emmett had brought on, and sense of panic that I assumed came from the rush she'd been in on going toward the door. Those were just the top layer, I sat up straighter, intent on her as I dug through each strand of emotion, amazed that she was able to stand in front of us and not weep from everything I felt. I know I would have been weeping had I been able to.

There was anger, more anger then just what she felt at Emmett. There was worry and sadness. There was a sense of anxiousness and annoyance, but at the base of it all was something else that tore through me, right to the very center of my being. Pain. Deep inside her there was a pain so agonizing I had to get her away before it pulled me in too far and I wouldn't be able to get out. This woman's pain could be my undoing and that was before I had ever gotten a whiff of her blood, which clouded into my brain in the small seconds after I unraveled her emotions. It was intoxicating, but I could control my thirst for it, at least.

She still needed to get away from me before that pain drove me insane.

"Excuse me, Miss Swan, but if you don't mind I think I could explain this to my rather thick headed brother." The words poured out by themselves, the only thought going through my mind was for her to leave. "I haven't had your class yet, it's my next period, but I think I can gather the gist of what you're wanting."

Her thank you came with another surprise. Those dark eyes looked at me and everything around me froze. How could one human hold so much pain inside them that it leaked out their eyes and no one seemed to notice? I couldn't comprehend it, but it was there and it tore at me more. There was no way I was going to be able to stand the next hour with her. Her pain seemed to scream out at me now that I had found it, begging for someone to make it go away.

I stared as she spoke again to Emmett, her words not registering to me and then stared at the space she'd been as she walked off. I only came out of my daze when Emmett moved off the bench and Alice pulled my face to look at her.

"What was that?" Her small voice pulled me completely out of the pain that had enveloped me from the moment Cassidy had stepped up to the table.

"I'm not sure. She's…she's…it's like she's dying inside but that's not possible at least not from the reason I felt." I stared into Alice's eyes, but didn't really see them. My head was jumping between the now and the look in Cassidy's dark eyes.

Edward pushed Bella up and they left. Alice needed to leave to or she'd be late, instead she sat there, staring back at me while I tried to work through everything.

"She's in pain. No one notices it." My voice was too low for any human to hear it.

"Oh, Jasper." Alice's tiny arms went around my neck, knowing without me telling her exactly why I was having such a hard time.

God, I loved this woman. There was no one who could understand me better. I didn't even have to explain any farther and it did help with her hugging me. I forgot why I was now more worried then the rest of my family.

Deep inside, I knew that the pain I had just felt coming from Cassidy Swan was only the tip of the iceberg for me. Her eyes would haunt me until I tried to do something for her, which I had never tried to do with a human in my entire immortal life.

I was scared.


End file.
